Introduction: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection represents a major healthcare challenge in both industrialized and developing countries. The standard treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been interferon-based over many years with less than satisfactory cure rate and many side-effects. Directly acting antivirals (DAAs) have promise for a treatment regimen free of interferons with much better cure rate and minimal side-effects. Aims and Objectives: To evaluate efficacy and safety of an oral interferon-free regimen, sofosbuvir plus ribavirin in the treatment in genotype 3 chronic hepatitis C patients. Materials and Methods: 200 treatment naïve chronic hepatitis C genotype 3 patients of either sex with age more than 18 years were enrolled in the study. Sofosbuvir 400 mg once daily plus Ribavarin weight-based was given to all the patients. Duration of treatment was 24 weeks and 12 weeks to cirrhotics and non-cirrhotics respectively. Data analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS version 22. Results and Observations: In this prospective study the total number of patients was two hundred (n=200). The mean age (in years) of patients was 44.2 ± 14.7. The number of male patients was 112 (56 %) and 88   (44 %) were females. The number of cirrhotic patients was 70 while 130 were non-cirrhotic. On comparison on the basis of sustained virological response at twelve weeks of the completion of treatment (SVR12) we observed that treatment naïve cirrhotic patients had  SVR 12 of  92.8 %  while in the non cirrhotic patients SVR 12= was 96.9 % . Adverse effects were insignificant and none of the patients dropped out because of side effects. Conclusion: The sofosbuvir and ribavirin based therapy showed very good rates of sustained virological response in chronic hepatitis C genotype 3 patients irrespective of the state of fibrosis. In addition it was found to be cost effective, safe and very well-tolerated. Keywords: Hepatitis C; Genotype 3; directly acting antivirals, Sofosbuvir, Sutained virologic response (SVR).

Background: For the blood donation to be healthy and safe it is very important for the donor to be in good health. There is limited data regarding the profile of bloods donors in Kashmir. Our study was done to assess the demographic and health status of blood donors in north Kashmir Methods: A cross sectional study assessing the secondary data was done in blood bank associated with Government Medical college district Baramulla in North Kashmir. Results: A total of 364 donors were analysed. Majority were male voluntary donors. Maximum (31 .5 %) donors were O-positive followed by B-positive and A-positive blood groups. The mean age of the participants was 30.82 ±8.14 years. . The mean weight of the study population was 69.24 ±8.9274 kg .The mean Hb of the donors was 13.3 ±0.66 gm/dl. Conclusion:  Voluntary donors which are considered to be the safest type of donors were the majority in our study. More than 90 % of the study population had haemoglobin values above 12gm/dl.